Originally Posted by
tandempower
Right, but if the shipping costs are built into the prices, then the prices can be lowered by allowing people to choose whether or not to pay an extra $1 to have it delivered to their door. So instead of paying, say, $20 plus free shipping, you pay $19 and you have the option to have it shipped to your door for $1. Also, Amazon makes more money because they're spending less of the $19 on subsidizing vans for drivers.
The only real loser in the deal would be Mercedes because they don't get to sell as many vans, but then that was the whole point of using bike couriers instead of vans+drivers, wasn't it? I.e. to make the money by and for cycling instead of driving.
You have never bought from Amazon have you? The whole idea of shopping at Amazon is the keep from going out. Amazon doesn't make most the stuff they sell they get it from vendors. If the vendor charges 20 bucks for a T-shirt amazon cannot adjust the price on free shipping. If I cannot get it to my door I will just drive to the mall and get it same day.
And no the idea was for Amazon to reduce cost not to help cyclists. The idea was to make Amazon deliveries easier for Amazon by moving employee costs to private contractors. That reduces the personnel cost and increases the balance sheet for Amazon. Amazon is all about profit. Just look at what happened when Seattle levied a tax on employees to help pay for homeless in the city. Amazon cancelled a large building project and was planning on moving 5000 jobs somewhere else. The tax was overturned the very next day.